Thinking Ahead 2009

Society Tech

STAYING AHEAD OF THE TECHNOLOGY CURVE

by Dr. J. Richard Madaus, PhD
Executive Director of the College Center for Library Automation

“The hurrieder we go, the behinder we’re getting”

Older generation computer users participate in “application-based” computing (turn on the computer and go to an application to help you do your work — Word, Outlook, etc.); the Millennial generation consider all computing as “being connected” (not disjointed sites and programs)

THINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW:

• Automating reference
• JPEG 2000
• Interoperability with Internet Sources
• Death of MARC
• PDAs/Portability of Data
• Metadata Harvesting
• Preservation of New Media Formats
• Infrared
• Personal Search Software
• Second Life
• OPACs and User Behavior
• Blogging
• Broadband
• Self-Publishing
• Spam Filters
• Biometrics
• XML
• RFID
• RSS
• Web Usability
• Wi-Fi Everywhere
• Mobile Computing Implications
• Hiring Good Systems Personnel
• Handhelds
• E-Resource Management
• Matrix Management
• Open Source
• Open URL
• RDA
• Web Services
• Opera Browser impact
• Personal Information Management (PIM)
• Wireless/Wireless Security
• Privacy and Electronic Confidentiality
• Home Schooling
• Authentication and Rights Management
• Submerging Technologies
• Good Scholar impact
• “Twittering”
• Google Book impact
• User Centered Design
• Institutional Repositories
• Technology Policies
• User Centered Products
• Search Engines and Research
• Security, Digital Rights Management
• Metasearching/Federated Searching
• USA Patriot Act
• Game Technology
• Customization and Personalization

Library Heritage has a “Search and Locate” mindset; Library 2.0 has a “Find and Deliver” mindset. But the assumed real world of web users is “Click and Know”

Young users are “format agnostic” — they don’t care what format their information comes in (or where the information comes from) because it’s all accessed through the computer screen

There is a growing impact of users we will never physically see or encounter

Chicago Public Library’s Strategic Plan 2010 is the first to mention “global users” of the public library, but it won’t be the last

Communication tools are getting smaller, more portable, and more dynamic:
Apple’s iPhone
Sony’s mylo Personal Communicator

What’s the next big thing? NEC Computing has conceptualized small, more portable, more powerful technology — a personal computer the size of a pen?

The public is used to (and comfortable with) Google technologies: myVox, iGoogle, Google Co-op, Google Mobile

Google generation users assume THEY have control of the information, how they want to view it and use it

With 2,000,000 books available for full, free downloading on Google Books, any laptop can be ranked #103 in the ARL

The Wiki Juggernaut is just warming up:
Wikipedia
Wikimedia Commons
Wikiquote
Wikispecies
Wikinews
Wikibooks
Wikiversity
Wiktionary
Wikisource
Meta-Wiki
MediaWiki
WikiWiks
Wapedia - for your mobile phone

Personalization is key — users want to be able to personalize their web experience to their needs (and fast!)

The Future of Bibliographic Control
RDA (Resource Description and Access) will change cataloging practices dramatically (think “AACR III”)
Joint Steering Committee for the Development of RDA
Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control

What if libraries started thinking like Douglas Merrill, Director of Internal Technology at Google?
“We’re about not ever accepting that the way something has been done in the past is necessarily the best way to do it today.” (D. Merrill on BaselineMag.com)

When people think of the Internet as a lifestyle, do they still think of the library as a place?

Final Quote from Pogo: “We’re facing insurmountable opportunities.”

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